Rhetoric Society of America

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RSA14 - Submission Deadline July 1, 2013

In just about one calendar year, we’ll be convening the 16th Biennial Rhetoric Society of America Conference. The 2014 RSA (RSA14) Conference will be held in San Antonio, Texas and is already shaping up in exciting ways. In addition to a great convention theme – “Border Rhetorics” – which invites us to think about not only geographic border but also disciplinary and conceptual borders, we have a variety of excellent special programming planned.

As previously announced, our keynote speaker will be the renowned philosopher Linda Alcoff whose work clearly speaks to issues of borders and of rhetorics. We will also be holding a session of the very popular Super Sessions this year including planned sessions on: Civic Engagement, Latin American Rhetorics, New Media, Jewish Rhetorics, and Rhetorics of the Body, among other topics.

The 2014 conference also marks the centennial of the “split” between “Speech” rhetoric and “Composition” rhetoric. As many of you know, it was in 1914 when teachers of speech decided to form their own association during an NCTE meeting in Chicago. As part of acknowledging this event and the way it has shaped rhetorical studies in the United States, RSA14 will host a special series of “In Conversation” panels in which a scholar from Composition and a scholar from Communication will engage each other around an important topic of common interest. Topics include the Public Sphere, the State of Rhetorical Theory, Rhetoric and Activism, and Agency. This series of conversation should allow us to spend some time exploring our own borders and learning more about the diverse disciplines that converge around the study and practice of rhetoric.